Instrument for treatment of strictures by electrolysis



{No Model.)

J. A. FORT. INSTRUMENT FOR TREATMENT OF STRIOTURES BY ELEOTROLYSIS.

Patented Jan. '7, 1896.

NiDREW B.GHAHAMJNGTOUNQWASNKNGWNJ C that the instrumentacts on both sides of the UNITED STATES PATENT Erica.

JOSEPH A. FORT, OF PARIS, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO THE DR. FORTS ELEC- TROLYSIS SANATARIUM, OF NEW' YORK.

INSTRUMENT FOR TREATMENT OF STRTCTURES BY ELECTROLYSIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,832, dated January 7', 1896.

A fli ti fil d November 7, 1895. Serial No. 568,209. No model.)

To [LZZ whom if; may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. FORT, a resident of Paris, France, (temporarily residing in New York city, in the State of New York,) have invented a new and useful Improvement in Surgical Instruments for Treatment of Strict-ores by Electrolysis, which improvement is fully set forth in the following specification.

This invention. relates to an instrument or device for treatment of strictures of all kinds, as of the urethra, esophagus, uterus, or rectum.

The object 01f the invention is to cure or remove such strictures by electrolytic action, causing a disintegration of the false growth, as distinguished. from cauterizing, on the one hand, or treatment by the knife, on the other. To this end the instrument is made in the form of along sound, at about the middle of which, at one side, is a projecting blade, having a curved and smooth edge. The sound is formed preferably of rubber and the blade of platinum. The blade is connected by a conductor running through the interior of the sound with a connecting-screw on the handle of the instrument, and to this screw is attached one wire of an electric circuit, the other wire being attached to a plate, which, in using the instrument, is applied to the body of the patient. The instrument beyond the platinum plate has a very flexible tapering portion, which acts as a guide in leading the instrument, without injury to the membrane, to the constricted part, and the platinum plate or electrode being in contact with this part and the circuit closed through the patients body the instrument acts upon the stricture by electrolysis, decomposing or disintegrating the tissues. The electrode may be in the form of a bowed or curved wire, and the better to insure the success of the operation it is preferred to employ two wires, on opposite sides of the sound, so

stricturcd passage. An advantage of the wire over a rigid blade is that the former yields somewhat to the pressure of the strictured part, and is less likely to cause injury to the membrane.

to be applied, that shown in the drawings being designed for the treatment of strict ures of the urethra. The sound terminates in along slender flexible portion a, and at the handle it has a metallic connection device or terminal I) for attachment of one wire of a circuit, including an electric generator B. From the terminal I) a metallic conductor 0 extends throughthe body of the sound and connects with the bowed platinum plate or wire d,'which projects at one side of the sound and constitutes one electrode of the circuit. As shown in Fig. 1, there may be two of these wires, both connected wit-h the conductor 0. The plate or wire should be curved or bowed, as shown, and have a smooth edge or surface, the object being not to cut or abrade the surface of the membrane, as in the surgical treatment of strictures. In Fig. 2 the platinum electrode is in the form of a curved plate.

In operation the sound is introduced carefully into the strictured passage, in this case the urethra, the flexible portion a serving to guide the introduction of the instrument, and curling or rolling itself up in the bladder, while the blade or electrode at presses against the stricture. The other electrode D is then applied to the abdomen or other part of the patients body near the part operated upon, and the electric circuit is thus completed, the current passing through the stricture and acting electrolytically or electrochemically thereupon.

lVhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An instrument for treatment of strictures electrolytically, comprising a non-conducting sound having a slender flexible end portion, a curved platinum electrode projectin g from the side of the sound intermedi- IO Wires through the sound to a connection device or terminal on the handle, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JOSEPH A. FORT.

lVitnesses A. PoLLoK, E. L. XVHITE. 

